Poppy Harlow and Zoraida Sambolin take a look at the top CNN Trends this morning.

A creative concoction mixing Girl Scout cookies and beer takes the cake. Five new cookie beers are flowing at San Francisco's "Cerveceria De Mateveza". Flavors include a peppermint porter inspired by Thin Mints, a salted chocolate stout with peanut butter inspired by Peanut Butter Patties, and a Belgian dubbel with coconut and cocoa nibs inspired by Samoas. There are no actual cookies in the beers but each beer is served with the cookie that inspired it.

And a video of a California high school senior, Jake Davidson, makes some compelling arguments why supermodel Kate Upton should be his prom date has gone viral. Even better, it’s caught her attention. She tweeted her response to Jake: "You can call me Katie if you want! How could I turn down that video! I'll check my schedule."

Why would anyone want to spend three months alone on a boat, sleeping no more than 20 minutes at a time and dealing with perpetual dampness, not to mention the constant threat of death and disaster?

"I think you have to be a certain type of person," says 38-year-old Alex Thomson, a sun-kissed, blond-haired Brit who lists his profession as an aspiring "single-handed, around-the-world sailor." He has made it his mission to sail around the world—the entire world—all alone without stopping.

"When you put it in perspective, something like 3,000 people have climbed Mt. Everest. More than 500 people have been out to space," Thompson reasons. "But less than 100 people have sailed single-handed non-stop around the world."

Thompson is not yet one of them. In his majestic 60-foot racing yacht sponsored by Hugo Boss, Thompson is gearing up for the Vendee Globe, the premiere solo around-the-world yacht race, which take place every four years. It's his third try; the first two he didn't finish.

In 2006, his keel snapped and his boat capsized. "I though I might die," says Thompson, who had to abandon ship and was ultimately picked up by a competitor.

That experience taught him a lot. Despite all the challenges going on outside, what counts is what is going on in your head.

"You know when you're out there on your own in the southern ocean, where [you're] going to spend five weeks in wind chill factors minus 20, and there's no one to help you…your brain is telling you you're going to die and you've got to control that emotion. You've got to be able to sleep, you've got to be able to eat, you've got to be able to do your jobs and sail the boat. That takes some mental strength, also mental instability," Thomson says.

Editor's note: Warning: Video is graphic and depicts a woman being physically abused.

(CNN) - A Connecticut group home employee has been put on administrative leave without pay after a video that appears to show her abusing a woman resident with an intellectual disorder was sent to the operators of the group home, the state and CNN affiliate WFSB.

The video appears to show the caretaker at the group home kicking the woman in the gut, whipping her with a belt and kicking and dragging her across the floor by her hair.

The DVD was titled "The Perfect Employee" and labeled as having been shot at an East Hartford group home. It was sent anonymously and came with no other details.

Options Unlimited Inc., the privately held nonprofit that operates the home under contract with Connecticut's State Department of Developmental Services, said in a statement: "We are deeply saddened and appalled by this incident. As soon as we became aware of it, we took prompt action and placed the employee on unpaid administrative leave."

It was a feeding frenzy of cruelty. On Thursday, we brought to you the video of Karen Klein, a school bus monitor who was so brutally verbally abused by middle school students that it brought her to tears. The 68-year-old grandmother also happened to lose her son to suicide 10 years ago.

Reddit.com, an online community where millions of users vote on content that they like or think is important, set up an online fundraising site for Klein through Indiegogo.com. The goal was to give Karen a vacation, but the site has now raised almost $500,000.

This morning on "Early Start," Reddit.com's Alexis Ohanian explains how the internet can often be used as a 'level playing field' for the average person to support people who were wronged or to correct an injustice.

(CNN) - A profanity-laced video of middle school students in upstate New York verbally abusing a bus monitor is sparking an outpouring of support as strangers worldwide rally to her side.

In the video, the students taunt Karen Klein, 68, with a stream of profanity, insults, jeers and physical ridicule.
Some boys demand to know her address, saying they want to come to her house to perform sexual acts and steal from her.
The bullying continues unabated for about 10 minutes in the video, reducing Klein to tears as a giggling student jabs her arm with a book in one instance.

"Oh my God, you're so fat," one says.

Klein, a bus monitor for the Greece Central School District, said she tried her best to disregard the harassment. The students involved attend Greece Athena middle school.